Naacp, Union Anger Festers

National Chapter To Decide Response To Police

Fort Lauderdale — NAACP President Marsha Ellison and police union head Jack Lokeinsky had never met or talked until Tuesday, but that hasn't stopped them from becoming locked in a power struggle.

Lokeinsky, president of the Fort Lauderdale Fraternal Order of Police, has been angry with Ellison since August, when she demanded that Fort Lauderdale police fire Officer Robert Hoffman, who was accused of threatening a black youth.

The police union president has asked his members to join the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and vote Ellison out of office this fall.

Ellison said she sent an FOP flier to the association's national headquarters in Baltimore on Wednesday. National NAACP officials will determine how the local chapter will react to the union's effort, she said.

But Ellison also said the black community is angry, and she expected that they would counteract the union's efforts.

"People will join to make sure the police don't take over the NAACP,'' Ellison said. "This is way bigger than Marsha.''

On Wednesday, black residents rushed to support Ellison, who has held public meetings for people to register complaints of police intimidation.

"Don't ethics come into play here?" McCoy asked. "Do officers want to be involved in something like this?"

McCoy said, however, the NAACP needed to thoroughly investigate the complaints they have received to make sure the cases against police were solid.

Ellison attended Tuesday night's police union meeting after being invited by a police officer who, she said, did not want to be identified.

She said she spoke with Lokeinsky that night, but they did not resolve the dispute.

"I told him, `You're going to advocate for your people and I'm going to advocate for my people,''' Ellison said. "Their president said the issue is personal with me. He said he didn't like that I called Hoffman a liar and a racist and didn't like that I called for his job and was unwilling to compromise.''

Ellison said Lokeinsky told her he planned to set up an executive committee of police officers who joined the NAACP to interview the civil rights organization's candidates and determine who the police union would endorse.

Lokeinsky didn't dispute Ellison's account.

"Yes, that's absolutely true," Lokeinsky said in an interview. "Our goal is to be able to have some voice and back a candidate in the community who will serve our best interest."

He said he also told Ellison, "I'd have no problem if the candidate they choose is her.''

Lokeinsky said he did not know how many officers took NAACP applications with them and that the police union had no plans to run their own candidate. He said he also did not know how many police officers would have to become NAACP members before the union could form a committee.

The NAACP election is scheduled for November.

Mayor Jim Naugle, who in April attended an NAACP town hall meeting on police harassment, said Lokeinsky has "been rather bizarre since he's been in office.''

The mayor said a newspaper ad the police union prepared in April warning residents they would be less protected because officers were working overtime at a hip-hop concert was an example of Lokeinsky's behavior.

The mayor also said he was surprised by the union's NAACP membership drive, because at the town hall meeting NAACP officials praised Fort Lauderdale police for having a citizens review board and complaint forms in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole.

"I went to the meeting; I thought all police departments were taking lumps. But at least the Fort Lauderdale Police Department was praised," Naugle said. "So I was surprised that they took that position, they meaning the union."

Naugle was not alone.

Pat Hanrahan, senior vice president of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association, said the rival police union's action are "a little out of the ordinary."

"I don't see us doing anything like that," Hanrahan said of the call for union members to join the NAACP.

Hanrahan said the PBA does not have a problem with the NAACP conducting town hall meetings to seek complaints about police. He said most police departments encourage people to file complaints.

In the black community, the reaction of Lauderhill resident Tanina Love was typical.

Any time a black leader stands up for black people, Love said, white people "want to throw them out of office.''

If the union successfully encourages its members to join the NAACP, Love said, she would lead the charge for "all people to join the NAACP so we can outvote the police about putting Marsha Ellison out of office.

"We don't want her out of office,'' she said. "As a matter of fact, we want her to continue another term, if she can.

"It's a lowdown dirty shame when we can't trust the police.''

Gregory Lewis can be reached at glewis@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4203.